Identity Predictions
I enjoyed reading Radovan Semancik’s Identity Predictions for 2006 and beyond.
In addressing the topic of strong authentication, Radovan predicted broad acceptance: “we will eventually buy SecurID tokens in hypermarkets.”
It will be interesting to see how prophetic he really is!
Interesting idea. I’m sure that it will become easier to get hold of a more secure means of authentication (such as a token), but let’s not forget that the ‘know your customer’ part of credential-issuing is as important a factor as the token technology…
In other words, if that part of the process is done by your local W*lm*rt, what do you end up with? In some cases, it will be something which conclusively proves that you are… no-one in particular.
I think Radovan could be onto something with his predicition about subverting the default browser certificate chain, though: in my view that’s one of the grubby little lumps which has been swept under the rug since the late 90s.
The only way easy access for tokens (e.g from Walmart) would work is to have an easily accessible, but highly reliable trusted third party that could conclusively verify Identities as an integral part of the token configuration process. The big question is who would that be?
More about this:
http://storm.alert.sk/blog/identity/tokens-in-hypermarkets.html